Our friends over at SixEyes have some great mp3 downloads of Leonard Cohen live in a new performance from February of this year.
]]>With a nice little intro from John Cash himself…
]]>Fan-made video highlighting bassist Paul Simonon
]]>A new form of music is emerging in the 21st century. Electronic pop sound or music coupled with electronic effects like in guitars, synthesizers, drums, and a wide range of other musical instruments is hitting the American airwaves by storm. One of the rising artists of this genre is White Williams.
The Cleveland native began his music career in 1999 as a drummer for Ohio area bands and established himself as one the best drummers in Ohio. Implementing the use guitars and synthesizers, Williams recorded Smoke, a compilation of songs that are defined by expressive lyrics and obscure musical arrangements. When I’m not busy playing online poker and Wii, you can find me in my favorite chair listening to Walt. Click below to hear the interview.
White Williams- New Violence mp3
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6.7
I’ve been putting off this review for a couple of weeks now. I was thinking, all of this time, that Jenni would turn out to be bland – another pretty girl with a bad habit of playing guitar. 1.76 songs into The Fourth EP, her debut out on Clickpop Records, Jenni convinced me that she is not talentless or boring. A mere 20 or so years old, Jenni Potts makes music that proves to be much more elegant and sincere than her years display. The Fourth does it all right – it’s pensive and pertinent; it’s slightly ambient, but jagged with rock girl mentality. Jenni has been through a lot, and you feel it in every croon of her voice. It seems as if all her anger, frustration, past tragedies, and depression are the fabric of this heartfelt unveiling.
The first track, “The Fourth”, alludes to the date of her first suicide attempt and the due date of a baby she miscarried. It is clear that she isn’t trying this music thing on for size, but is groping for some clarity and peace, and this music is a product of that. She tells her tales with the power of Neko Case and the sensitivity of Cat Power. Complimented on this EP by pedal steel, vibraphone and cello, among other instruments, Jenni swoops in telling her tales of misery, mistakes and what could have been. Though she is young, her yearning message is universal. Just as Michael Stipe so knowingly said, “Everybody hurts sometimes”.
Fall has finally come to D.C. after weeks of the summer heat pussy-footing around in an unwelcome nag. Unfortunately, the brisk breezes and crisp air translate into chilly nights and the 40-minute wait outside the venue during soundcheck wasn’t the most pleasant. During this dead time I was surrounded by a battalion of under-21s flirting by pushing and talking about sex like it was the holy grail. It was clear that the majority there were either college students who didn’t have to get up before 9:00 on Monday or high school kids who simply didn’t give a shit that they had to. After finally being admitted by a ponytailed dude wearing a Hot Topic gauntlet fit for eviscerating lions in the Coliseum, I headed up to the ever-reliable bar.
The opening band took stage shortly after my first drink was ordered, but watching the Sox mop up the Series won my time in a rather foregone conclusion. Manchester Orchestra, the second-billed act that took the stage after the opener (whose name I can’t recall) has been touring with The Annuals since August. I didn’t catch all that much of their thunderous guitar attack, so I can’t comment on the band beyond a cursory appraisal. The rhythms were tight, the energy was high, and the guitarist and bassist looked curiously like Stone Gossard and Mike McCready circa Pearl Jam’s 1992 performance on SNL. After hearing a song that sounded like a crushing, distorted rendition of “The Thin Ice” by Pink Floyd, I opted for giving continued attention to the Boys from Beantown before the main act took the stage.
Finally, The Annuals took their place below the lights. Skin deep, the band is a hodgepodge of glove-fit indie elements. Singer/keyboardist Adam Baker fits the lit-rock bill down to the wire with the 3-week facial hair and suede vest. Pianist/keyboardist Anna Spence, who strikes first impressions as a talented version of Donna from That 70s Show towered over the other male members of the band, while a likely-teenaged Zack Oden flitted between strumming and acting as the band’s second drummer. A young band with a critically-acclaimed debut album, The Annuals are ripe for skyrocketing out of college airwaves and into a wider audience.
Musically, the band is hard to nail down, but what is undeniable is the North Carolina sextet’s energy. Baker frequently flew into wild-eyed frenzies of yowling vocals, looking like a stomped-on cat in plaid. His neck tendon vocal attack on “Carry Arround” flew in and out of Spence’s swoosh of Flaming Lips-esque phaser effects with reckless abandon. In the course of the bubbling jabber of a great song from Be He Me, the band rocked out under Baker’s unlikely rallying call of “I got lots of pills in my pocket.”
From the rollicking circus swells of “Complete or Completing” to the unhinged mix of campfire sing-along and Queen contained in “Dry Clothes,” The Annuals put on a furious parade of sights and sounds. Much of the set had more of a feel of a relay race than a traditional performance, with multiple band members trading instruments either between or during songs. Deftly maneuvering on the stage packed to the floorboards with gear, Baker hammered on a snare in between keyboard lines and two drum sets used to their full and mighty potential.
Flutters of Atari-sounding midi formed the segues between the band’s songs, originating from some curious device on the side of Baker’s keyboard. It could have been an iPod for all I know, but the mysterious object made for some great opening builds in the band’s songs. Preferring to let the songs do the talking, the band had minimal interaction with the crowd, with a few wry interjections here and there. The standout was guitarist Kenny Florence murmuring, “if we can see some movement in the crowd, things gonna get a little honky tonk.” They did indeed.
The band capitalized on the fury of its propulsive songs for the one-hour set, gathering the strength of its members like the Planeteers summoning forth the sum of their powers to fuck up the looters and polluters. The Be He Me single “Brother” dropped an A-bomb of sound after the subdued opening of brooding vocals and chirping synth fanfare that whipped the modest crowd up into headbangs. Andy Hull of Manchester Orchestra took the stage to add ammunition to the already wall-busting furor of four Annuals vocalists.
After ending on a crushing mesh of funk and power chords that rippled through the tiny venue, the night was over. Another satisfying night at the R&R kept my mind occupied on the irritatingly long trek back to the nearest metro station. Keep on rocking, North Carolina.
-MATT WENDUS
]]>Rating: 8.0
Ambient electronica, as the name implies, is a genre that demands scale over scope. Brian Eno?s gift to music has had a rather uneven history, mostly owing to the fact that it?s extremely difficult to get right without tottering into either instrumental overload or the dubious lure of world music. Furthermore, as technology advances with the times, the detail demanded during the analog days of electronica is often passed over in favor of letting the machines just do their thing.
Nicolas Fromageau and Anthony Gonzales, better known as M83, are able to incorporate the souls of woeful balladeers into a highly micro-analyzed take on ambient electronica. On their fourth album, Digital Shades [Vol. 1], the band unleashes a swirling sensory experience of futuristic sights and sounds rather than an exercise in virtuosity. M83 is more shoegaze than conventional electronica, incorporating a marriage of distorted instrumental effects with ripe artificial foundations of tones. The tempos are slowed and the mood is reigned into atmospherics over energy, much like Mogwai pioneered ten years ago with their groundbreaking album, Young Team. There are answers in the ambience, if one knows where to look, and M83 paints a vivid connect-the-dots on this disc.
The album?s most potent punch is the duo?s ability to evoke feeling and imagery without reliance on words. The timeless themes of uncertainty and loss undeniably seep through the tempered layers and give Digital Shades [Vol. 1] a gravity that envelopes the ears. Whether or not M83 intends it, each song draws sorrow out of the listener?s body, like venom from a ripped wound. It?s a morose catharsis that reflects the cold chemical answers that our current and future civilizations look to for aid. From the grave-digging piano on ?Dancing Mountains? to the quavering, string-like synthesizer on ?My Own Strange Path,? each addition to the shadowy whole is worth its weight in gold.
The album rises in towering crests and each track functions as its own wavelength from start to finish. ?Waves? begins with?well, waves. Simple chords, simple swells of digital organ sound. It works. The reflective, repetitive, yet impossibly deep quality of the ocean is mirrored in this song. ?Sister [Part 1]? sounds like an extension of the celestial opening from U2?s ?Where The Streets Have No Name? and is an effective prequel to its saddened successor later in the disc. The encroaching wash of static over the church choir melodies of ?Coloring The Void? energizes the tear-stained dynamics with electric white noise. Static is a sonic weapon that M83 has a keen handle on, and the crackling discharges of noise also work to great effect on the undulating ?By The Kiss.?
The keys on the closing ?The Highest Journey? seem to shove harder after each bar as the funeral parade of ambience starts to invade the soundscape. During the course of what sounds like a polished extension of Sonic Youth?s ?Providence,? scathing flares of static carry the ghostly voices forward in their dirge. Hauntingly gorgeous in its simplicity, and emotionally direct as a dying friend, it?s a summation of the album?s triumph of mood. Digital Shades [Vol. 1], like Caribou?s Andorra, demonstrates that there are still worlds yet to be uncovered in the cold architecture of electronic music. Let?s hope there?s a volume 2.
-MATT WENDUS
]]>The man behind Castanets is mid US tour, yet takes time to talk with Shane Mehling about feline asthma, Freak Folk and (obviously) Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo.
usounds: What lessons did you learn from your last record that you addressed on In The Vines?
Raymond Raposa: I learned to fry eggs. I learned the wretched smell of corn mash turning to whiskey, the smell that burns the inside of your nostrils, makes you think blood will tear from your eyes. I learned that it is better to leave some things on the ground no matter how intriguing they are to pick up.
usounds: Since the name implies a group of people, was the band started out with the intention of it not being a solo project? Do you ever think about forming a full-time band?
Raposa: It only implies a group of people if it’s written or said as “The Castanets” which is incorrect. It’s Castanets. The band did start out as a trio, however quickly mutated and the possibility for happy accidents by inviting friends and strangers to share the stage was sweet unpredictability. I have dream bands in mind, but I think these dreamy incarnations are happening in ways more powerful than self-willing or intentionality. It’s a flexibility thing. Keeping limber.
usounds: With Radiohead putting out their new record for as little as zero dollars, do you think this will have a trickle-down effect for indie bands in the near future?
Raposa: Radiohead is reveling in the privilege of stardom. They flaunt their bourgeois dismissal of dependency on the market economy because they have been blessed by that market economy. However, that said, even the engagement in music as a pastime or profession is a luxury that we as post-survival humans take for granted.
usounds: When cats severely suffer from feline asthma, they’re given glucocorticoid, which is a hormone that binds with the cortisol receptor. While effective, it’s a little pricey. Are you one of those people who spend a bunch of money on their pets, or do those people creep the shit out of you?
Raposa: The only thing creepy about this is the fact that cat asthma is a result of their allergies to humans. Makes one wonder what else in the world is allergic to humans.
usounds: Has anyone ever reviewed your record with the line “More like the Castanots”? Did it make you furious?
Raposa: No. What makes me furious is that you just said it.
usounds: You were considered part of the Freak Folk movement. Was that the dumbest name ever? Grunge was a pretty stupid name too. Was it dumber than grunge?
Raposa: Is the use of a word for forward progressing describing two genres that are actually a nostalgic look back an oxymoron? Taxonomy is a bitch you can’t leave. Definitely a terrible, terrible name and a lazy catch-all for a bunch of bands that kind of know each other.
usounds: On a scale from 1 to 10, how much do you love having a beard?
Raposa: I don’t know about score, but if you want me to categorize, I say “best new”. That seems to be a useful term these days.
usounds: You are known for the endless amount of musicians who are happy to get up on stage and play music with you. Can you give me the name of one guy who sucked really bad?
Raposa: Myself. If others are “sucking” or standing out, I have failed because of my nearsightedness and inability to assimilate the chaos, or at least dance with it.
usounds: “Psychodelic-Megabytes” wrote on your comment page “your one amazing person. :-)”. Did you e-mail her back to tell her that the correct spelling is actually “You’re”? Could you go do it now?
Raposa: Punctuation is negligible. MySpace even more so.
usounds: Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo discovered San Diego, your native city. He died in 1543 of gangrene stepping out of his boat and splintering his shin when he stumbled on a jagged rock. Do you think you’ll die in a less or more pathetic way?
Raposa: I could only hope my death is that pathetic. Blessed are the pathetic, for they shall escape the historical misappropriations of future generations.
-Shane Mehling
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